| Background: Coronary heart disease(CHD)is a serious threat to human health and remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide.Cognitive function is the internal psychological process of people’s perception,memory,thinking,making decisions and solving problems.Cognitive impairment(CI)seriously affects people’s quality of life.Recently,the correlation between CHD and CI remains controversial.In addition,little is known about the changes in brain network organization in patients with CHD and the correlation between this network organization and inflammatory markers and cognitive function.Objective: This study aims to investigate the correlation between CHD and CI,the changes of brain network organization in patients with CHD,and the correlation between this network organization and inflammatory markers(neutrophil)and cognitive function.Methods: According to the clinical guidelines,a total of 15 patients with coronary heart disease(CHD)who signed informed consent in the Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University were enrolled in this study by October 2022,and 13 nonCHD patients who were hospitalized in the same period were included as the control group.Routine blood test was performed on admission,and blood routine,biochemical and other related test indicators were collected from the two groups.The resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging(RS-f MRI)data were collected to explore the functional brain network organization of the subjects.The average participation coefficient(PC)of different brain network modules was calculated and compared between CHD patients and healthy controls,and the differences in module separation between groups were observed.On this basis,further comparison analysis between groups was conducted to explain the changes of PC,and to explore the correlation between PC and inflammatory markers and cognitive function.Results: The baseline data and laboratory indicators of the two groups were statistically different only in body mass index(BMI),hypertension,high density lipoprotein(HDL-c)and hemoglobin(Hb),p < 0.05.(1)Neutrophil counts(p=0.006)and white blood cell counts(p=0.003)were significantly higher in the CHD group than in the healthy control group,but no significant intergroup differences were found in lymphocyte(p=0.147)and neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio(NLR)(p=0.325).(2)The study found that compared with the control group,the PC value of the Cingulo-opercular network(CON)in the CHD group was significantly lower(p=0.007),and the lower the PC value,the higher the degree of isolation between brain network modules.(3)The results showed that the connections between network modules in the CON were significantly lower in the CHD group than in the control group,p=0.002;There was no significant difference between the two groups in the degree of connection in the network module(p > 0.05).(4)Compared with the control group,the greater the modular isolation in the CON was in the CHD group,and the greater the number of neutrophils and White blood cell were in the CHD group,with p values of 0.024 and 0.035,respectively.However,no statistically significant difference was found in NLR ratio(p=0.066).In addition,it was found that the CHD group had fewer inter-network connections in the CON,and the number of neutrophils and White blood cell was higher,and the NLR ratio was higher,with p values of 0.004,0.008 and 0.005,respectively,which were statistically significant.(5)Regarding the cognitive function scores of patients,our results showed that there was no statistical difference between the cognitive scores of patients in CHD group compared with the control group,which including Mini-mental State Examination(MMSE)and Hamilton Depression Scale(HAMD),p > 0.05.In addition,it was found that in the CHD group,the PC value of the frontoparietal network(FPN)was not correlated with the scores of patients’ cognitive scale(p > 0.05).However,in the control group,lower PC value of FPN was associated with better cognitive performance(p < 0.05).In addition,there was no significant correlation between cognitive function and PC value of CON module between the two groups,p> 0.05.Conclusion: Studies have shown that neutrophils are closely associated with the onset of CHD and with the separation of brain network modules in patients with CHD,but our study has not found an association between CHD and the development of CI.We cannot conclude that CHD is related to CI,nor can we evaluate the role of neutrophils in it,which needs to be confirmed by expanding the number of participants in the future.The findings of the current study extend our understanding of the neural mechanisms of CHD,and suggest that changes in cognitive function in patients should be monitored during clinical diagnosis and treatment to prevent the development of CI and even more severe dementia. |
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